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American Splendor - 9/12/03 - R - 100m
Paul
Giamatti - Harvey Pekar
Judah Friedlander - Toby Radloff
Hope Davis -Joyce Brabner
Director: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
Written by: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
Official
Website
LYN
I consider myself to be somewhat of a part-time amateur psychologist,
for instance; while sitting idle on a bench in the mall waiting for either
my wife or daughter (or both) to finish with their respective shopping,
I might pass the time by watching people, sort of an active non-participant
in my own non-official study of the behavior habits of the animal human.
Most will pass by without a second glance, but on occasion, a unique individual
will catch my curious eye, especially the ones that let's just say have
got that look of something is definitely on their mind. 
And there I sit wondering, "What's their story?". But to find
out for sure that would require me striking up a conversation, and asking
a complete stranger the rather bizarre question of "So what's your
story, or what makes you tick?". Well living where I live, that's
not a really good idea, and might prove fatal.
Then enter "American Splendor", and Medical File Clerk/Comic
Book Writer 'Harvey Pekar' the main topic of the movie seemed like the
perfect candidate for my study and best of all I wouldn't have to ask
a single question, just cough up $8.50, sit in the theater and watch his
story unfold in front of me up on the big screen.
So, was it what I had hoped it to be? Not exactly… The film was
sort of a biography of 'Harvey Pekar'. Mostly acted by 'Paul Giamatti',
with occasional snippets of narration provided from the real Harvey himself.
Didn't really quite understand that one, I mean if you're going to tell
a story about someone, and use actors to tell the account, then why do
you need the real people themselves? Although seeing the actors and the
real characters they depicted, gave me a wonderful insight into what a
great job actors 'Paul Giamatti' and 'Judah Friedlander' did portraying
the real-life 'Harvey Pekar' and friend 'Toby Radloff' respectively. I
often wonder when an actor plays a "True Story" character, how
closely their performance would mimic that person. In this case…Fantastic
Job…Bravo!
As for the movie as a whole, it wore on a little too long. Didn't really
understand the point of it, being it wasn't a biography in the traditional
sense, and I never did find out why 'Harvey' was the way he was. It just
seemed that he was odd, and that's that. Then again, I'm odd…so
can't fault him for that. But,
as 'Harvey' put it in the film "Ordinary life can't be some pretty
complicated sh*t…" Yeah…no doubt.
I can't highly recommend the movie, but the film also featured 'James
Urbaniak' as underground comic book artist/writer 'Robert Crumb'. So if
you ever saw the movie "Crumb", and liked that, then you'll
probably enjoy this…
Lyn